Durbin Announces FutureGen 2.0 Labor Agreement

Ensures Local Laborers Will Be First In Line For Construction Jobs Associated With Project

[JACKSONVILLE] – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced an agreement between the FutureGen Alliance and local labor unions which gives the local unions primary responsibility for hiring the workers needed to build the FutureGen 2.0 project.

“In addition to producing affordable, reliable electricity in an environmentally-friendly way, FutureGen will also create hundreds of high-skilled construction jobs,” Durbin said. “The agreement announced today allows the project to move forward while ensuring those good-paying jobs will stay right here in Central Illinois. This project is a good thing for Morgan County and a good thing for the future of our nation's energy infrastructure, and I'm glad it is now one step closer to completion.”

The FutureGen 2.0 project involves the retrofitting and repowering of Ameren's idle oil-fired power plant in Meredosia to create the world's first full-scale, oxy-combustion coal-fired plant designed for permanent carbon dioxide capture and storage. The labor agreement announced today consists of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the FutureGen Alliance and the leaders of 17 unions that includes three separate project labor agreements for three separate components of the FutureGen project: the power plant itself, the pipeline and storage site for the captured carbon, and an associated visitor and training center. All three agreements give local unions responsibility for hiring craft labor. When the supply of local labor is exhausted, the local unions may then reach out to surrounding unions for any additional workers.

In addition to the jobs created by the project's construction, a recent study by the University of Illinois estimated that the federal government's $1 billion investment in FutureGen would lead to over $12 billion in economic benefits and create an average of 620 well-paying jobs – 400 of which would be in Jacksonville – for the next 24 years. The visitor and training center will also help educate and train Jacksonville students in sustainable energy technology